Having introduced new rules for ‘structured data’ or ‘Schema markup’ with an aim to communicate with search engines, Google has brought ‘rich results for podcasts’ on search engine results. The latest versions of Google Search facilitate this option, wherein support for Chrome on Android is expected to be seen soon. There is also a possibility for podcasts to be indexed such that they can be seen in search results. This is a specialized feature for Google Home and smartphones.
Correct implementation is important. If implemented in the right manner, users don’t face the need to ‘click through to a landing page to listen to a podcast episode’. More so, if you play with RSS feed readers, the files will automatically reach you ‘through syndication’ and you do not have to search the files all by yourselves.
So Indexing Leads to Correct Implementation!
If you need to index a podcast, one needs to follow the following steps quite diligently.
- Make sure that you put in the forefront a suitable RSS feed that bears all the necessary information about the podcast. Ensure that it also conforms to the RSS 2.0 specifications and the feed requirements. This will lead to better indexing.
- It is important for the feed to contain minimum one episode which adheres to the requirements on the page.
- Specifically, the podcast should be having a dedicated homepage bearing the necessary components for indexing. For instance, there should be a on the homepage that points to the RSS feed.
- The entire package including the homepage, the RSS feed, and any non-blocked audio files should be ‘exposed to Googlebot and must not be sheltered by robots.txt or tags.’
- In the event of the podcast appearing in Google Play, the user should be knowledgeable about the Google Play Music podcast RSS feed specifications. Although RSS specifications for Google Play Music and Google Search are not entirely dissimilar yet they have certain points of difference. Be sure to know the differences clearly.
Thus, after podcast indexing, structured data implementation will lead to these podcasts appearing increasingly on search engine result pages and providing guidance to search engines about content crawling.
